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PANAMA  CANAL. 


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LIBRARY 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


L'8R.'V 
P.  P.  I.  E. 


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THE  PANAMA  CANAL  AND  THE  COMMERCE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN 

ADDRESS  OF 
THE  HONORABLE  PHILANDER  C.  KNOX 

SECRETARY  OF  STATE 
AT  THE  ANNUAL  BANQUET 

OF  THE 

CALIFORNIA  DEVELOPMENT  BOARD 

IN 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA,  MAY  7,  1912 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  AND  THE  COMMERCE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN 


ADDRESS  OF 
THE  HONORABLE  PHILANDER  C.  KNOX 

SECRETARY  OF  STATE 
AT  THE  ANNUAL  BANQUET 

OF  THE 

CALIFORNIA  DEVELOPMENT  BOARD 

IN 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA.  MAY  7,  1912 


€2 


Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen: 

On  a  recent  official  visit  to  the  countries 
of  the  Caribbean  I  enjoyed  the  privilege  and 
advantage  of  personal  association  with  the 
men  who  control  their  destinies.  I  am  filled 
with  appreciative  recollections  of  the  good 
will  with  which  those  Latin -American 
peoples  testified,  through  me,  their  warm 
feeling  for  the  people  of  my  country.  Im- 
pressed with  the  deep  interest  there  shown  in 
the  achievement  of  the  centuries-old  dream  of 
an  interoceanic  waterway  through  Caribbean 
territory,  it  becomes  now  an  even  greater 
privilege,  on  returning  home,  to  speak  also  to 
my  countrymen  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  the 
great  work  which  is  soon  to  be  appropriately 
commemorated  here  in  your  beautiful  city — 
the  Queen  of  the  Eastern  Pacific. 


s  1077- 


Seeing  your  noble  bay,  and  thrilled  by 
the  impressive  beauty  of  your  Golden  Gate, 
through  whose  august  portal  the  wealth  of 
the  Orient  finds  a  passage  to  our  land,  I  am 
impressed  anew  by  the  fitness  of  choosing 
this  spot  above  all  others  to  celebrate  the 
achievement  of  the  stupendous  task  we  are 
accomplishing  in  opening  another  Golden 
Gate  to  the  interoceanic  commerce  of  the 
world.  The  benefits  of  this  titanic  work 
are  so  far-reaching  as  to  be  well-nigh  incal- 
culable. Its  completion  crowns  the  wonder- 
ful progress  which,  within  the  lifetime  of  men 
still  young,  has  been  wrought  in  breaking 
down  the  barriers  that  divided  the  peoples 
of  the  Newer  and  Older  Worlds,  and 
brings  together,  in  the  unity  of  peaceful 
purpose,  communities  that  from  a  remote  past 

have  existed  aloof  and  apart,  sundered  by  the 

• 

seemingly  invincible  traditions  of  ages  and 
kept  in  isolation  by  the  vast  wastes  of  the 


ocean  routes  between  them.  Aside  from 
the  interminable  route  around  Cape  Horn, 
these  tracks  between  the  East  and  West  have 
converged  naturally  toward  a  common  center 
at  Panama,  there  only  to  be  arrested  by  the 
cosmic  barrier  of  the  Isthmus,  involving  the 
heavy  costs  of  transshipment  and  land  transit. 
It  had  become  a  vital  need  for  the  nations  of 
the  earth  that  the  unobstructed  freedom  of 
interchange  of  thought  and  speech,  effected 
through  the  time-annihilating  agency  of  the 
electric  waves,  should  be  measurably  approxi- 
mated by  effacing  the  existing  obstruction  to 
the  material  movements  of  commerce;  that 
the  steadfast  and  seemingly  eternal  rampart 
of  the  Isthmus  should,  like  the  wall  of  Jericho, 
fall  before  the  bugle  blasts  heralding  the 
irresistible  march  of  enterprise,  and  that  in 
its  place  should  be  an  open  pathway,  acces- 
sible to  all  mankind — a  veritable  Golden 
Gate  for  peaceful  world-trade. 


Besides  its  high  office  as  an  avenue 
through  which  the  far-divided  productive 
agencies  of  the  East  and  the  West  may  flow 
unrestricted  for  their  mutual  advantage,  the 
Isthmian  Canal  fulfills  a  local  purpose  of 
transcendental  importance  to  the  communi- 
ties of  the  Occidential  Hemisphere.  I  speak 
not  only  of  the  inestimable  benefit  to  this 
country  of  making  its  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
coasts  practically  continuous  for  our  mercan- 
tile and  naval  fleets,  but  of  the  change  it  is 
destined  to  produce  in  the  relations  of  the 
peoples  of  the  Caribbean  and  the  tropical 
Pacific  toward  each  other  and  toward  their 
more  northerly  neighbors,  Mexico  and  the 
United  States.  In  the  case  of  those  States 
fronting  on  the  two  oceans,  like  Colombia, 
Panama,  and  four  of  the  five  Central  Ameri- 
can Republics,  its  immediate  effect,  like 
that  so  far  as  the  United  States  and  Mexico 
are  concerned,  is  to  give  them  a  virtually  con- 


tinuous  water  frontage  on  both  seas.  Beyond 
this  is  the  larger  advantage  of  bringing  the 
Pacific  coasts  of  all  the  countries  of  America 
north  of  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn  into  direct 
water  communication  with  the  Atlantic  coasts 
of  all.  To  you,  of  the  Pacific  coast,  whose 
sea  intercourse  with  the  Latin- American  com- 
munities has  perforce  been  limited  to  the 
trade  with  the  Pacific  countries,  the  Canal 
means  that  the  whole  territory  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  is  to  be  brought  into 
touch  with  the  Atlantic  coast  of  South 
America;  in  short,  that  the  trade  of  Vene- 
zuela, the  Guianas,  and  Brazil  is  to  be  brought 
as  nearly  within  your  direct  reach  as  that  of 
Eucador  and  Peru,  just  as  our  producers  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  States  and  of  the  fer- 
tile Middle  West,  for  which  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries  are  water  highways  to  the 
sea,  gain  direct  commercial  access  to  the 
western  markets  of  Latin  America.  It  is 


s  107; 


this  aspect  of  the  matter  that  appears  to 
have  most  keenly  excited  the  interest  of  the 
Caribbean  States  I  have  so  recently  visited. 
The  beneficial  possibilities  of  the  future  are 
doubly  enlarged  by  opening  the  Isthmian 
Golden  Gate  for  the  material  and  profitable 
interchanges  of  all  the  communities  of  the 
three  Americas. 

Intimacy  of  mutual  intercourse  between 
diverse  peoples  is  one  of  the  most  active  de- 
veloping influences  yet  devised  by  man.  The 
march  of  the  old  Romans  toward  universal 
civilization  was,  to  put  it  practically,  over 
good  roads.  They  built  time-enduring  high- 
ways in  and  across  every  territory  they  in- 
vaded and  conquered.  They  brought  diverse 
and  often  hostile  peoples  together  in  a  most 
businesslike  way.  While  the  direct  purpose 
was  the  aggrandizement  of  imperial  Rome, 
one  of  its  effects  was  the  better  association 
of  conflicting  peoples  and  the  implanting  of 


8 


ideas  of  progress  among  them.  The  down- 
fall of  Rome  was  wrought,  not  by  the  peo- 
ples they  had  trained  in  the  rudiments  of 
civil  advancement,  but  by  the  resistless 
hordes  of  far-northern  barbarians  who  had 
never  seen  a  Roman  road  or  imbibed  a  Latin 
idea.  Had  Rome  not  yielded  to  luxurious 
indolence  and  fallen  into  the  decadence  that 
too  often  follows  the  success  of  the  opulent 
conqueror,  the  nations  of  the  earth  might  in 
time  have  been  brought  more  closely  together 
in  pursuit  of  their  common  advantage,  and 
progress  toward  a  more  enlightened  era 
might  have  been  uninterrupted.  There 
might  have  been  no  Dark  Ages  to  de- 
plore, and  no  protracted  agony  of  renais- 
sance. The  prophecy  of  the  Cordovan 
Seneca,  which  I  am  glad  to  believe  makes 
the  quest  for  the  Golden  Fleece  symbolical 
of  the  yearning  of  man  for  the  "  federation  of 
the  world"  in  peaceful  concord,  might  have 


been  on  the  pathway  to  fulfillment  as  the  inti- 
macy of  the  peoples  increased  under  a  com- 
mon favoring  influence,  leading  up  to  an  era 
when  all  boundaries  should  be  effaced,  and 
when  the  Hindu  might  indeed  "drink  of  the 
waters  of  the  chill  Araxes  and  the  Persians 
of  the  Elbe  and  the  Rhine".  The  nations 
would  have  more  intelligently  understood  one 
another  through  the  commingling  of  ideas  and 
purposes  that  follows  from  cordial  intercom- 
munication. The  Canal  can  and  should  be 
instrumental  in  furthering  such  moral  and 
material  association  and  be  an  agent  for  the 
actual  realization  of  Seneca's  dream : 

"  The  time  shall  come  in  the  long 
course    of   years   when   ocean   shall 
strike  off  the  chains  of  earth  and  the 
vast  world  be  opened." 
The  function  of  the  Canal  in  promoting 
the  good  mutual  relations  of  different  com- 
munities is    hardly  to  be   exaggerated.      It 


10 


can  not  be  doubted  that  it  will  be  a  poten- 
tial factor  in  cultivating  the  spirit  of  neigh- 
borliness  among  the  Pan-American  States, 
especially  between  those  lying  within  the 
sphere  of  its  influence  and  sharing  in  its 
immediate  benefits.  It  has  a  noble  mission 
in  encouraging  the  internal  development  of 
all  those  countries,  aiding  each  to  attain  by 
its  own  effort  a  higher  degree  of  stability  and 
prosperity  alike  beneficial  to  itself  and  to  its 
neighbors.  In  this  regard  it  will  accomplish 
more  good  than  the  mere  facilitation  of 
transit  across  an  inland  border  can  effect. 

History  teaches  that  the  prosperity  of  a 
nation  is  in  almost  constant  proportion  to 
its  capacity  for  taking  advantage  of  com- 
mercial water  transit.  The  opulent  era  of 
Solomon  was  marked  by  the  building  of  a 
11  great  navy  of  ships  at  Ezion-geber,  which 
is  beside  Eloth,  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea, 
in  the  land  of  Edom",  by  which  traffic  was 


11 


so  greatly  stimulated  that "  the  weight  of  gold 
that  came  to  Solomon  in  one  year  was 
six  hundred  three  score  and  six  talents  of 
gold" — nearly  twenty  tons.  The  merchants  of 
Tyre  were  princes.  Phoenicia  and  Greece 
conquered  the  world's  trade  with  their  fleets. 
"Many  a  distant  land  looked  to  the  Winged 
Lion's  marble  piles"  when  Venice  was  the 
world's  center  of  trade.  Their  commerce 
was,  however,  carried  on  within  a  confined 
sea  area  and  in  vessels  of  what  are  now  called 
small-cargo  capacity  and  of  limited  speed. 
In  our  days,  when  the  productions  of  remote 
lands  are  carried  by  great  steamers  across 
vast  regions  of*ocean,  trading  countries  are 
brought  closer  together  in  point  of  time. 

The  Canal  lessens  the  obstacle  of  distance 
by  taking  traffic  through  the  backbone  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere  instead  of  leaving  it  to 
go  around  Cape  Horn  or  around  the  world 
the  other  way.  What  will  happen  when  a 


12 


goodly  part  of  the  total  carrying  trade  of  the 
world  is  saved  thousands  of  miles  of  sea  voy- 
age is  almost  beyond  conjecture.  How  the 
change  will  affect  the  yet  inadequately  de- 
veloped commercial  opportunities  of  the 
countries  in  and  near  the  new  pathway  is 
more  certainly  predicable.  It  must  stimulate 
them  to  make  practical  use  of  their  enormous 
resources  the  better  to  meet  the  improved 
conditions  of  demand  and  supply.  As  Ophir 
contributed  to  Solomon's  opulence  and  bene- 
fited by  it,  so  should  the  resourceful  countries 
of  the  Caribbean  be  advantaged  by  the  enter- 
prise of  American  traders.  It  is  for  you, 
my  countrymen,  to  do  your  part  in  the  great 
work  of  opening  new  worlds  to  the  peaceful 
reign  of  commerce,  now  that  the  opportunity 
is  within  your  grasp.  It  is  the  hope  and  wish 
of  the  Caribbean  peoples  that  we  shall  do 
this.  In  my  recent  association  with  the  rep- 
resentative men  of  those  countries  I  found 

13 


them  deeply  impressed  with  a  realizing  sense 
of  the  benefits  to  accrue  to  them  as  a  natural 
result  of  the  successful  achievement  of  the 
Canal. 

My  assigned  topic  being  the  Panama 
Canal  and  its  relation  to  the  commerce  of  the 
Caribbean,  it  is  appropriate  that  I  should  draw 
attention  to  this  particular  phase  of  the  mat- 
ter, so  far  as  I  can  do  so  without  wearying 
you  with  a  prosaic  array  of  facts  and  figures. 

The  most  immediate  commercial  benefits 
to  the  United  States  will  come  naturally  to 
the  Pacific  coast  and  to  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. As  I  have  already  said  in  other  words, 
the  opening  of  the  Canal  extends  the  Pacific 
coast  line  along  the  Caribbean,  just  as  it  ex- 
tends the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast  line  down 
the  west  coast  of  South  America.  It  may 
confidently  be  said  that  it  also  makes  all  the 
northern  coast  of  South  America,  as  far  as 
Trinidad  at  least,  and  probably  farther,  com- 


14 


mercially  tributary  to  the  California  coast,  and 
includes  the  Leeward  and  Windward  Islands 
within  its  affected  area,  not  to  mention 
British,  French,  and  Dutch  Guiana,  and  the 
upper  reaches  of  Brazil.  Although  all  these 
territories,  being  geographically  nearer  to 
Europe  than  to  California  even  with  the 
opened  Canal,  are  likely  to  continue  to  draw 
from  Europe  the  bulk  of  the  supplies  which 
the  Old  World  habitually  furnishes,  and  to 
send  thither  in  return  the  staples  peculiar  to 
those  tropical  regions  which  Europe  regu- 
larly consumes,  still  the  door  is  opened  for 
reciprocal  and  lucrative  traffic  in  the  prod- 
ucts and  commodities  which  the  Pacific 
coast  supplies  and  consumes.  The  oppor- 
tunities for  new  trading  ventures  is  not 
limited  to  the  western  Caribbean  coasts. 
Colombia  has  a  water  front  of  400  miles  on 
the  Caribbean,  and  Venezuela  substantially 
a  thousand  miles.  Behind  them  lies  a  vast 
region  almost  untrodden,  rich  in  manifold 


s  1077- 


15 


opportunities,  which  under  the  impetus  of  in- 
creased exportation  must  invite  settlement  and 
develop  increased  capacity  for  the  consump- 
tion of  the  productions  of  other  countries. 

At  present  fully  80  per  cent  of  the  for- 
eign commerce  of  Colombia,  which  ranges 
from  $25,000,000  upward,  is  through  the 
Caribbean  ports,  chiefly  Cartagena,  Barran- 
quilla,  and  Santa  Marta.  Of  this  foreign  com- 
merce about  $  1  0,000,000  is  with  the  United 
States. 

Venezuela's  total  foreign  trade  averages 
about  $30,000,000  annually,  and  of  this 
one-third  is  with  the  United  States.  When 
the  Canal  is  opened  the  Pacific  coast  will  be 
able  to  ship  without  breaking  bulk  to  all  the 
ports  of  Colombia  and  Venezuela.  Those 
countries  are  especially  good  consumers  of 
wheat  flour.  The  Pacific  coast,  with  the 
Canal  open,  will  be  able  to  ship  flour  to  the 
north  coast  of  South  America  just  as  easily 


16 


as  it  does  now  to  the  west  coast.  It  may 
also  count  on  a  traffic  in  certain  classes  of 
lumber,  in  various  forms  of  provisions,  and 
many  other  things.  There  is  no  reason  why 
its  petroleum  output  should  not  also  find  a 
market  along  this  coast,  and  some  of  its 
machinery  an  opening,  since  the  present 
handicap  of  breaking  bulk  and  transship- 
ment would  be  avoided. 

As  for  the  West  Indies,  they  form  an 
integral  and  most  important  component  of 
the  zone  immediately  affected  by  the  Canal. 
The  north  shore  islands  adjacent  to  the  con- 
tinent are  also  to  be  taken  into  account. 
The  whole  West  Indian  system  will  neces- 
sarily be  part  of  the  extended  area  which  is 
made  by  the  Canal  commercially  accessible 
to  the  Pacific  coast  line. 

There  is  no  reason  why  California  and 
her  sister  States  should  not  share  in  supplying 
all  these  countries,  including  Cuba,  Jamaica, 


17 


Haiti,  and  Santo  Domingo.  Our  own 
American  territory  of  Porto  Rico  of  course 
will  be  brought  within  the  sphere  of  geograph- 
ical accessibility.  All  these  countries  are  good 
buyers  of  wheat  flour.  Cuba,  for  instance,  is 
now  taking  annually  $5,000,000  worth  of 
American  flour.  With  the  preferential  tariff 
reduction  of  30  per  cent  which  we  have  under 
the  reciprocity  treaty,  the  market  will  con- 
tinue to  belong  to  the  United  States  unless 
that  treaty  in  the  meantime  should  be  abro- 
gated. It  seems  certain  that  Pacific  coast 
flour  can  be  shipped  through  the  Canal  just 
as  well  as  down  the  west  coast,  since  the 
geographical  radius  as  between,  say,  San 
Francisco  and  Cienfuegos,  on  the  south  coast 
of  Cuba,  is  shorter  than  between  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Valparaiso. 

The  region  lying  between  Mexico  and 
the  Darien  Isthmus  presents  a  field  that  may 
be  made  advantageous  to  the  commerce  of 


18 


the  Pacific  slope.  The  trade  of  the  Pacific 
ports  of  Central  America,  which  thus  far 
has  alone  been  directly  accessible  from  our 
western  shores,  represents  no  more  than 
the  importation  of  such  commodities  as  are 
demanded  by  a  very  limited  actual  necessity, 
and  the  exportation  of  but  a  small  fraction 
of  the  resources  of  these  countries. 

When  we  consider  the  status  of  the 
national  credit  of  Guatemala,  Honduras,  and 
Nicaragua,  the  three  largest  of  the  five 
Republics;  the  frequent  revolutionary  up- 
heavals which  render  both  foreign  and  local 
merchants  averse  to  long-time  commitments; 
the  resultant  weakness  of  their  mercantile 
credit  abroad;  the  low  purchasing  power  of 
the  people,  owing  to  their  comparative  pov- 
erty through  want  of  opportunity  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  their  great  natural  resources;  the 
present  lack  of  competitive  steamship  facili- 
ties; the  resultant  high  rates  and  irregular 


19 


service;  and  the  generally  inadequate  port 
facilities,  we  may  immediately  perceive  why 
the  trade  of  Central  America  is  in  its  infancy. 
The  natural  resources  and  products  of  the 
Central  American  Republics  are  well 
known;  their  latent  wealth  of  agriculture, 
mines,  forests,  and  stock  raising  can  hardly 
be  estimated;  their  future  demand  for  arti- 
cles of  foreign  manufacture,  such  as  dry 
goods,  mining  machinery,  railroad  equip- 
ment, hardware,  farm  implements  of  all 
kinds,  road-making  machinery,  and  lumber- 
mill  equipment,  may,  under  the  stimulus 
of  increased  opportunity,  become  almost 
incredible. 

In  those  countries  of  Central  America 
where  fraternal  strife  has  left  its  scars  (and  I 
do  not  speak  now  of  all  of  them)  we  find  prac- 
tical paralysis  of  natural  resources.  The  na- 
tive agriculturist  dares  not  produce  more  than 
the  amount  actually  necessary  for  his  own 


20 


consumption,  or  at  the  most  that  of  his  near- 
est neighbors,  for  the  fear  of  conscription  in 
times  of  war,  and  the  subsequent  and  inevi- 
table destruction  or  appropriation  of  his  prop- 
erty stares  him  in  the  face.  Regions  of 
incalculable  fertility  now  lying  idle  will  soon 
hear  the  stimulating  call  of  improved  trans- 
portation facilities  for  their  products,  if  only 
domestic  tranquillity  and  financial  stability 
enable  them  to  heed  that  call. 

Foreign  merchants  resident  in  these  coun- 
tries can  not,  in  the  face  of  impending  revo- 
lutions, with  prudence  commit  themselves  to 
mercantile  purchases  for  future  delivery, 
which  may  arrive  when  the  country  is  in  the 
throes  of  such  conflicts.  Their  trade  is 
therefore  limited,  their  negotiations  relatively 
small,  and  their  credit,  under  such  conditions, 
seriously  affected;  while  present  steamship 
facilities  are  inadequate,  freight  rates  high, 
and  time  of  transit  unnecessarily  protracted. 


21 


It  is  inconceivable  that  such  local  conditions 
can  longer  be  suffered  to  restrain  the  eco- 
nomic development  of  certain  of  these  coun- 
tries, particularly  when  they  find  themselves 
ideally  situated  upon  the  highway  of  com- 
merce between  two  hemispheres. 

For  the  immediate  amelioration  of  the 
local  conditions  we  must  consider,  in  the  case 
of  both  Nicaragua  and  Honduras,  the  pend- 
ing conventions  between  those  countries  and 
the  United  States.  The  national  and  com- 
mercial benefit  that  would  thus  accrue  to 
them,  and,  by  very  force  of  example  and  by 
relieving  all  of  the  need  of  disproportionate 
military  burdens,  to  their  sister  republics,  is 
apparent.  The  inevitable  effect  upon  the 
commerce  of  the  United  States  with  the 
Caribbean  may  also  be  judged. 

With  the  establishment  of  stable  condi- 
tions in  these  countries  practically  all  present 
limitations  to  both  import  and  export  trade 

22 


will  be  removed.  In  the  ensuing  increase  in 
trade  the  manufacturers  of  this  country  should 
share — in  fact,  they  should  enjoy  it  wholly, 
for  those  on  the  Pacific  will  have  it  at  their 
doors,  while  those  on  the  Atlantic  may  reach 
these  markets  at  less  expense  and  delay  than 
is  now  necessary  to  place  their  products  at 
Pacific  tidewater  after  transshipment  across 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

The  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal 
will  place  both  coasts  of  the  Republics  of 
Central  America  within  easy  international 
commercial  intercourse;  manufactures  of  all 
kinds  will  have  ready  access  to  the  con- 
stantly growing  markets  of  those  countries; 
their  products  and  perishable  fruits  will  have 
frequent  and  rapid  transportation  facilities 
awaiting  them.  The  adoption  of  the  pend- 
ing conventions  with  Honduras  and  Nica- 
ragua, from  which  such  permanent  benefits 
will  most  certainly  be  derived,  should  rectify 


23 


forever  the  conditions  which  directly  and 
indirectly  throttle  the  natural  development  of 
Central  America.  It  is  indeed  time  for 
the  manufacturers,  merchants,  farmers,  and 
exporters  of  this  country  to  consider  the  tre- 
mendous possibilities  that  the  construction  of 
the  great  waterway  between  the  two  oceans 
by  the  United  States  has  placed  within  their 
grasp,  and  to  consider  also,  as  directly  affect- 
ing their  interests,  the  diplomatic  and  com- 
mercial policies  by  which  their  Government 
is  striving  to  serve  them. 

The  present  commercial  relations  of  the 
United  States,  the  stimulus  that  these  rela- 
tions and  the  commercial  interrelations  of  all 
American  republics  are  soon  to  receive,  and 
the  future  accessibility  of  many  new  ports 
not  only  to  ourselves  but  to  the  commerce 
of  the  world  deserve  more  than  passing 
consideration.  This  new  proximity  of  the 
commercial  ports  of  other  nations  should 


24 


command  attention.  With  the  route  via 
Cape  Horn  no  longer  necessary,  and  under 
the  conditions  now  imposed  so  unhappily  by 
the  status  of  our  merchant  marine,  the  freight 
steamers  of  the  world  will  have  much  easier 
access  to  the  doors  of  a  region  whose  future 
commercial  possibilities  are  as  yet  inesti- 
mable, and  whose  greatest  trade  should  be 
with  the  United  States.  We  should  not 
lose  sight  of  this  collateral  consideration. 

San  Francisco,  speaking  and  acting  for 
the  whole  territory  of  the  Union  west  of  the 
Rockies,  has  taken  time  firmly  by  the  fore- 
lock and  allowed  three  years  for  the  prepara- 
tion necessary  to  the  adequate  celebration 
of  the  opening  of  the  Canal.  The  time 
allowed  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  work 
undertaken  by  the  Pacific  States,  aided  by 
all  the  others  of  our  Union,  is  none  too  long 
if  the  end  is  to  crown  the  work  and  afford 
to  the  world  an  exposition  that  will  rival  and 


25 


even  transcend  in  its  magnitude  and  com- 
pleteness any  previous  international  con- 
course of  the  world's  productive  and 
creative  forces.  In  like  manner  and  with 
equal  energy  it  behooves  you  to  make  the 
most  of  these  three  years,  so  that  when 
the  time  comes  you  will  celebrate  not 
merely  a  rose-tinted  prospect  of  future 
trading  advantages,  but  can  point  to  actual 
achievement  in  the  way  of  reaping  a  remu- 
nerative share  in  the  rich  harvest  that  is 
to  be  gathered  from  the  treasure  and  toil  our 
nation  has  planted  on  the  Isthmus.  It  is 
truthfully  said  that  opportunity  knocks  but 
once  at  any  man's  door,  and  the  aphorism 
that  there  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men  that, 
taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune,  is  of 
apt  pertinence.  It  will  not  do  for  you 
Far- Westerners  to  relax  your  preparative 
activities  and  sit  idly  amid  the  splendors  of 
your  great  exposition,  watching  your  alert 


26 


competitors  responding  instantly  to  the  knock 
of  opportunity  and  passing  through  the 
newly  opened  Golden  Gate  of  the  Isthmus 
on  the  favoring  tide  of  fortune.  Your  agen- 
cies should  be  seasonably  active  in  every 
country  where  you  have  a  chance  to  gain  a 
fresh  commercial  footing,  either  by  supplying 
its  needs  from  your  own  abundant  resources, 
or  by  attracting  a  share  of  its  exports  to  your 
shores,  or,  better  still,  by  doing  both.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  energetic,  capable  men  whose 
services  you  require  to  build  up  a  new  trade, 
you  need  the  ships  to  carry  your  wares  and 
to  bring  back  lucrative  returns. 

Moreover — and  this  is  an  important 
consideration — you  should  comprehend  the 
almost  axiomatic  proposition  that  the  mer- 
cantile possibilities  of  the  countries  with 
which  you  seek  to  cultivate  commercial  in- 
tercourse are  inseparably  bound  up  with  the 
tranquillity  and  undisturbed  prosperity  of 

27 


those  countries.  "Do  men  gather  grapes  of 
thorns  or  figs  of  thistles?"  Can  you  expect 
an  impoverished,  perturbed,  and  embarrassed 
community  to  throw  open  wide  the  door 
of  practical  opportunity?  Your  thoughtful 
public  men  should  realize  the  vital  interest 
our  vast  body  of  producers  and  consumers 
have  in  the  stable  prosperity  of  their  neigh- 
bors and  see  to  it  that  no  act  or  thought  or 
speech  on  their  part  shall  run  counter  to  the 
earnest  efforts  of  this  Government  to  make 
true  international  friendships  of  respect,  good 
will,  and  justice,  and  to  aid  certain  less  for- 
tunate commonwealths  at  our  doors  to  guard 
themselves  from  the  embarrassments  of  alien 
indebtedness,  to  build  up  their  national  credit 
on  the  firm  foundation  of  responsible  good 
faith  in  all  their  transactions  with  the  outer 
world,  and  to  free  themselves  from  the  cark- 
ing  malady  of  domestic  insurrection.  These 
efforts,  exemplified  in  the  Nicaragua  and 


28 


Honduras  conventions  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, are  not  mere  academic  theories.  The 
soundness  of  their  principle  has  been  prac- 
tically demonstrated  through  the  sympathetic 
assistance  we  so  successfully  lent  to  Santo 
Domingo  in  her  struggle  to  extricate  herself 
from  the  quagmire  of  foreign  debt  and  to 
throw  off  the  hideous  burden  of  political 
instability. 

The  measure  of  the  benefits  of  the  Do- 
minican treaty  is  shown  by  the  remarkable 
growth  of  the  commerce.  In  1903,  a  year 
before  the  modus  Vivendi  went  into  effect,  the 
total  Dominican  foreign  trade  was  approxi- 
mately $6,000,000.  In  1911,  according 
to  the  message  of  the  President  of  the  Re- 
public, it  had  grown  to  more  than  eighteen 
millions.  The  United  States  has  shared  in 
this  peaceful  prosperity.  Our  exports  to  the 
Dominican  Republic  have  increased  from 
relatively  two  millions  (at  the  time  the  treaty 


29 


went  into  effect)  to  nearly  four  millions,  and 
the  proportionate  share  of  the  United  States 
in  the  trade  of  the  Dominican  Republic  has 
materially  increased. 

So  much  for  the  commercial  and  morally 
potential  results  to  come  from  the  Canal,  if 
individual  effort  and  governmental  policy  work 
intelligently  together.  In  its  physical  aspects 
the  marvel  of  the  thing  is  almost  beyond 
conception.  In  fulfillment  of  the  charge 
intrusted  to  me  by  the  President  to  bear  to 
the  nations  of  the  Caribbean  and,  through 
them,  to  all  Latin  America  a  message  of 
fraternal  good  will  and  to  assure  them  of  the 
deep  concern  of  the  Government  and  people 
of  the  United  States  in  all  that  might  tend  to 
promote  their  enduring  welfare,  my  first 
halting  place  was  naturally  at  Panama,  the 
site  of  the  colossal  undertaking  so  preg- 
nant with  inestimable  benefits  to  the  New 
World.  Opportunity  was  thus  afforded 


30 


to  see  the  astounding  progress  that  had 
been  made.  It  is  a  sight  to  inspire  awe; 
the  mind  is  whelmed  on  beholding  how 
puny  man,  a  pigmy  in  presence  of  the 
Cyclopean  powers  of  created  nature,  has 
grown  to  titanic  stature,  and  to  realize 
how,  with  mingled  skill  and  daring,  mind 
has  successfully  contended  against  matter, 
achieving  in  a  few  months  results  which 
have  taxed  the  cosmic  forces  of  earth  un- 
numbered centuries  to  bring  about.  The 
first  impression  is  one  of  disappointing  in- 
ability to  grasp  the  wonder  of  the  achieve- 
ment. Accustomed  as  we  are  to  the 
spectacle  of  the  gigantic  works  of  nature — 
the  stupendous  gorges  of  the  West  and  the 
victorious  surge  of  the  mighty  Niagara 
through  rock-hewn  channels  to  the  graving 
of  which  untold  centuries  have  been  given — 
one  does  not  at  once  realize  that  on  that 
narrow  strip  of  ocean-sundering  land  the 


31 


supreme  inventive  capacity  of  man  has  accom- 
plished, in  a  space  of  time  measurable  by 
the  brief  life  of  a  child,  a  task  commensu- 
rable with  those  of  nature.  Take,  for  exam- 
ple, the  Gatun  Dam,  unrivaled  in  the  world. 
No  towering  wall  of  Cyclopean  blocks  con- 
fronts the  observer;  only  a  gentle,  rising  slope 
is  seen,  mounting  so  gradually  that  an  infant 
might  toddle  to  its  summit.  Astonishment 
grows  when  it  is  learned  that  the  dam  is,  as 
has  been  well  said  by  its  builder,  a  veritable 
hill,  moved  from  its  secular  position  and 
stretched,  by  human  hands,  across  the  plain 
through  which  the  torrential  Chagres  has 
flowed  for  ages. 

It  was  fortunate  for  us  that  the  Act  under 
which  the  Canal  was  undertaken  provided 
that  it  should  be  built  with  locks.  Opinion 
was  long  divided  as  to  which  was  the  more 
feasible,  a  canal  with  lifts  or  one  at  sea  level. 
We  ought  to  be  thankful  that  the  sea-level 


32 


alternative  was  finally  eliminated.  Its  im- 
practicability has  been  abundantly  demon- 
strated in  the  course  of  the  present  work. 
The  difficulties  at  the  Culebra  Cut  would 
alone  have  made  it  perhaps  impossible.  The 
lock  system  once  decided  on,  the  task  was  to 
meet  the  natural  problems,  like  that  of  the 
impetuous  Chagres.  Radical  changes  were 
made;  the  old  tunnels  and  spillways  to 
divert  the  torrents  were  abandoned,  as  was 
the  larger  part  of  the  channel  which  the 
French  had  begun  to  dig.  The  new  school 
of  engineering  evolved  the  happy  plan  of 
converting  the  destructive  Chagres  into  a 
helpful  agency  by  harnessing  it  to  do  much 
of  the  work.  The  Gatun  Dam  makes  of  the 
rebellious  river  a  placid  inland  sea  on  which 
the  world's  navies  might  float  in  safety,  thus 
fulfilling  one  of  the  ideal  conditions  of  the 
Nicaragua  route,  with  the  advantage  that  the 
surface  is  20  feet  lower  than  that  of  the 

33 


lakes  of  Nicaragua  and  Managua,  thus  per- 
mitting fewer  and  lower  locks,  conveniently 
grouped  with  a  view  to  more  practical  opera- 
tion. Thus,  the  serious  work  of  excavation 
was  limited  to  the  Culebra  Cut.  Some  of 
the  French  excavation  could  be  utilized  in 
that  quarter,  but  perhaps  not  more  than 
about  2,000,000  cubic  yards  out  of  more 
than  a  hundred  million  to  be  dug  out  on  the 
new  theory  of  construction.  The  Gatun 
Dam  contains  some  2 1 ,000,000  cubic  yards. 
The  locks  at  Gatun  Dam  require  2,000,000 
yards  of  concrete,  enough  to  build  a  fair-sized 
city. 

The  Culebra  Cut  is  rapidly  approaching 
completion.  The  scale  on  which  operations 
are  conducted  is  made  clear  by  the  state- 
ment that  in  one  year,  1909-10,  nearly 
32,000,000  yards,  much  being  shattered 
rock,  were  taken  out.  At  Culebra  one 
realizes  what  has  been  done.  The  vista  of 

34 


the  cut  is  that  of  a  natural  valley,  with  slop- 
ing, terraced  banks  and  with  a  level  bottom 
some  300  feet  wide,  instead  of  the  narrow 
1  1  0  feet  planned  by  De  L  esseps.  Indeed, 
all  the  dimensions  of  the  Canal  are  far  in 
excess  of  the  old  plan.  The  sea-level  chan- 
nel to  Gatun,  7  miles  long,  is  500  feet  wide 
at  bottom  and  41  feet  deep.  The  lake 
channel,  mostly  artificially  excavated,  is  32 
miles  long  and  from  500  to  1 ,000  feet  bot- 
tom width  and  45  feet  deep.  The  Culebra 
passage,  the  narrowest  part  of  the  Canal, 
is  to  have  300  feet  of  bottom  width,  giv- 
ing a  channel  in  which  the  Olympic  and 
Mauretania  could  pass  each  other,  with 
room  to  spare.  On  the  Pacific  end  the 
depth  is  45  feet,  the  width  500  until  it 
reaches  the  ocean,  where  the  tide  rises  and 
falls  some  20  feet.  The  total  length  of  the 
passage  from  sea  to  sea  is  approximately  50 
miles. 

35 


Everything  about  the  Canal  is  on  a 
scale  of  great  magnitude.  The  six  systems 
of  locks  are  in  pairs,  each  lock  having  a 
usable  length  of  1 ,000  feet  and  a  width  of 
1  1  0  feet.  The  Gatun  spillway  alone  could 
carry  off  the  highest  flood  of  two  or  three 
rivers  like  the  Chagres;  and  its  capacity  is 
perhaps  an  overabundant  prevention,  since 
the  surface  evaporation  of  the  lake  and  the 
flow  into  the  locks  make  it  doubtful  if  its 
surface  can  rise  to  the  safety  spillway,  even 
if  rain  should  fall  a  whole  day  at  the  rate  of 
5  inches  an  hour,  as  it  sometimes  does  in 
that  quarter. 

The  most  impressive  thing  about  the 
Canal  is  the  practicability  of  all  its  workings. 
I  do  not  speak  alone  of  the  mechanical  per- 
fection which  is  evident  on  every  hand,  or  of 
the  astounding  development  of  the  forces  of 
steam,  electricity,  and  explosive  force  far 
beyond  any  previous  application  by  human 
skill  to  such  a  task.  I  speak  also  of  the 


36 


administrative  system  which  has  been  organ- 
ized in  the  Zone.  For  efficiency  and  com- 
pleteness it  is  unrivaled  in  the  world.  In 
sanitary  and  educational  development  it  is 
ahead  of  any  other  community  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  It  is  an  example  of  organized 
effort  and  whole-souled,  devoted,  intelligent 
work  for  a  common  purpose  that  we  ought  to 
emulate  in  our  national  life  here  at  home. 
Its  army  of  workers  is  an  army  of  progress. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  on  the  completion 
of  the  task,  the  force  necessary  to  its  main- 
tenance and  operation  will  continue  the 
same  perfection  of  organization.  The  Canal 
Zone,  incapable  of  agricultural  production, 
is  not  a  fit  spot  for  promiscuous  settlement. 
The  Zone  should  be  treated  as  a  part  of  the 
Canal  itself  and  be  reserved  in  its  entirety 
for  canal  uses.  The  civic  structure  that  has 
been  built  up,  like  the  Canal  itself,  in  less 
than  seven  years,  for  the  most  part  within  the 


37 


last  three  years,  under  the  wise  direction  of  a 
single  administration  and  under  the  efficient 
control  of  one  man,  providentially  fitted  for 
the  task,  should  not  be  permitted  to  deterio- 
rate. The  sturdy,  healthy,  and  law-abiding 
cosmopolitan  community  which  has  been 
implanted  along  the  track  of  the  Canal 
should  not  be  suffered  to  perish  in  the  foul 
atmosphere  of  a  camp  of  sordid  adventurers. 
As  scum  drifts  with  the  tide,  so  the  new 
world  currents  of  traffic  will  carry  to  the 
Isthmus  many  undesirable  elements.  It  re- 
mains for  Congress  to  enact  wise  laws  for 
the  governance  of  the  Zone  as  an  enduring 
model  of  municipal  administration. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  the  problem 
of  the  Canal  which  is  now  attracting  much 
attention  and  begetting  a  vast  deal  of  dis- 
cussion, and  that  is  its  political  status  from 
the  international  point  of  view.  This  dis- 
cussion began  in  earnest  when  the  plans  for 


38 


the  fortification  of  the  Canal  were  brought 
forward.  Much  was  said  about  the  neu- 
trality or,  to  be  more  precise,  the  neutraliza- 
tion of  the  Canal.  As  in  the  case  of  many 
interesting  discussions,  confusion  has  arisen 
through  the  circumstance  of  its  not  always 
being  certain  the  advocates  and  the  oppo- 
nents of  any  particular  disposition  of  the 
question  are  talking  about  the  same  thing. 
The  words  "neutrality"  and  "neutralization" 
have  several  different  meanings  and  shades 
of  meaning.  All  seem  to  agree  that  the 
Canal  should  be  neutral,  but  as  to  the  way 
of  producing  that  condition  and  as  to  its 
nature,  obligations,  and  scope  when  pro- 
duced, there  appears  to  be  a  lack  of 
agreement. 

Our  treaties,  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to 
the  Canal,  contemplate  its'  full  and  un- 
impeded pacific  use  by  all  nations.  The 
United  States,  as  the  occupant  and  adminis- 


39 


trator  of  the  territory  traversed  by  the  Canal, 
assumes  for  itself  the  sole  right  to  see  that 
the  Canal  shall  not  be  misused  to  defeat  that 
end.  Our  national  policy  in  this  respect  is 
declared  by  those  treaties,  wherein  we  have 
announced  that  as  a  basis  for  carrying  it 
out  the  United  States  adopts  substantially 
the  rules  for  the  navigation  of  the  Suez 
Canal.  If  any  belligerent  violates  those  pre- 
cepts of  the  law  of  nations  upon  the  territory 
controlled  by  the  neutral  state,  as  the  Zone  is 
controlled  by  the  United  States,  the  neutral 
has  the  right  to  prevent  such  violation,  just 
as  he  would  have  the  right  to  prevent  it  on 
any  part  of  his  sovereign  territory.  That 
right  is  an  inherent  attribute  of  sovereignty. 
The  neutrality  of  transit,  which  is  the  par- 
ticular shade  of  neutrality  intended  by  the 
American  declarations,  can  be  practically 
maintained  only  by  the  responsible  party  in 
possession,  and  it  is  the  inherent  right  of  the 


40 


United  States  to  maintain  it,  precisely  as  it  is 
to  maintain  the  innocent  freedom  of  transit 
through  any  part  of  its  territory.  For  all 
purposes  of  sovereign  administration,  the 
Canal  is  American  territory  and  a  part  of 
the  coast  line  of  our  country.  It  stands  to 
reason  that  the  "neutrality"  imported  by  the 
generous  donation  which  we  make  to  the 
world  of  the  impartial  privilege  of  transit 
and  of  the  use  of  our  own  property  to  that 
end  could  not  have  meant  and  can  not  mean 
that  the  United  States,  if  at  war,  would  have 
to  abstain  from  sending  warships  through  the 
Canal  or,  on  the  other  hand,  be  constrained  to 
allow  the  enemy  to  use  it  on  equal  terms 
with  ourselves:  The  mere  statement  of 
such  a  proposition  is  its  self-reduction  to  an 
absurdity. 

I  am  glad  to  have  had  the  opportunity  to 
speak  to  you  on  this  great  subject  of  the 
Canal,  and  to  share  with  you  the  deep  inter- 


41 


est  you  feel,  in  common  with  all  our  coun- 
trymen, in  the  successful  accomplishment  of 
a  purpose  so  dear  to  every  American  heart. 
Its  achievement  will  be  bright  with  happy 
auguries  for  our  future.  You  of  the  Pacific 
coast  have  practically  testified  your  keen 
concern  in  its  success  by  organizing  the  com- 
ing celebration.  You  had  the  hearty  sym- 
pathy and  active  support  of  President  Taft 
in  securing  its  location  here.  The  situation 
of  the  great  exposition  is  singularly  favor- 
able. The  converging  lines  of  commu- 
nication have  made  Roman  roads  from 
all  parts  of  our  land  to  San  Francisco. 
Even  from  the  remote  east  the  distance 
to  be  traversed  is  pleasantly  offset  by  the 
alluring  natural  attractions  on  the  way — 
the  grand  severity  of  the  ice-crowned  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  wonders  of  the  Yellowstone 
and  Yosemite,  the  stupendous  canons  of  the 
rivers,  the  lakes  of  the  higher  plateaus — all 


42 


replete  with  interest.  Now,  through  the 
Golden  Gate  of  the  Isthmus  we  shall  have  a 
new  road  by  sea  to  your  own  Golden  Gate. 
Many  of  your  visitors  may  come  by  way  of 
the  Canal  itself  and  see,  with  unclouded 
eyes,  the  work  of  man  outrivaling  the  great 
labors  of  nature.  Although  your  exposition 
is  to  open  and  close  in  winter,  a  perpetual 
springtime,  fragrant  with  bloom  and  rich  in 
fruitage,  will  attend  the  traveler.  If  we  of 
the  East  envy  your  good  fortune  in  the  mat- 
ter of  climate,  we  shall  that  year  have  the 
privilege  of  sharing  it  with  you.  With  a 
full  heart  I  wish  you  all  good  fortune  and 
success  in  your  great  undertaking. 

43 


